TERROR ATTACK- ANOTHER BOMB BLAST IN DELHI

Originally I planned to have a ride with my bicycle. And since I left Portugal the muscles are a little rusty. I had seriously planned to drive to Quetan Minhar because this is only 15 Km so backwards 30 Km in total just the right portion to get back in shape. On Friday I heard that today is a working day (to have a bridgeday later) I was not very enthousiastic about the idea.
But after seeing that the bomb blasted on the road I would use to return and 2:19 pm could have been the time I would pass there I have to thank out MD for the wise decission

TERROR ATTACKS, NOW DELHI AS TARGET

I am getting very scared now the terror strikes Delhi, on roads I know , I passed, feel terror coming closer to me:
Eighteen dead, 90 injured
At least 18 people were killed and 70 injured in five serial blasts in a span of 45 minutes when terrorists targetted three crowded market areas in the heart of the Capital this evening
Indian Mujahideen claims responsibility
I am less scared of the bombs than of the reaction of the hindis, one day there will be a reaction against the moslems making no differnces anymore between radicals, conservative and progressive , it will be like a storm of violency a civil war and I dont want to be in between.

THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE DALITS IN BIHAR

I am still not in India and by lack of own material I would like to copy an article of todays BBC online which is so touching that I could not resist to infringe the copyright. May BBC online forgive me





Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless after floods hit the Indian state of Bihar last month.
Some of the victims face the additional hardships that come from being members of the low caste dalit community. Rajan Khosla of the charity Christian Aid has been meeting some of them in the village of Mirzawaa, where 500 families live in temporary shelters."Let me be born again as an animal rather than as a harijan (dalit). We face more humiliation than they," says Tetar Rishidev, a dalit from Mirzawaa village, in the district of Supaul.
After the floods in Bihar millions of people lost their homes, belongings and even family members. But for the dalits of Bihar there is further misery: the caste system.
In Mirzawaa village, Sakal Sadah is a dalit.

Today - unusually - he is happy. There is a food distribution and his family will get food. His children have been surviving on some leftover rice once in a day.
Sakal Sadah is a landless agriculture labourer and earns about 40 rupees (80 cents) for a 12-hour day.
Sakal Sadah works hard for little food
Now he's worried: "Where will I get work now? Everywhere is water. No one is going to employ me, I am a harijan."
Hundreds of dalit families are in the same situation as Sakal: they have been hardest hit by the Bihar floods.
In this emergency, when everyone should be provided with food, certain groups are denied access.
The plight of these communities in remote, rural areas is very serious - especially in the feudal state of Bihar.
They cling to the little they have. Many families have left behind one male member to keep an eye on their house and belongings.
Segregated society
Asdev Sadah, an elderly dalit, stayed behind to guard the house of his upper caste employer.
"I used to work in their fields," he said.
"They wanted me to watch their house and belongings. I have to listen to them. They will provide my family food and work once they come back.
Many have been left with nothing after the floods
"I have nothing left in my house - because it was made of mud it has already collapsed. My malik's (employer's) house is strong and they have stuff kept inside."
It seems a strange sort of society where an old man stays back, without food or shelter, taking numerous risks to guard the house of his feudal lord.
But Asdev no doubt knows full well that in this segregated society, there is no other support system for him and his family.
The relief camp in Sabela School in Madhepura is run by one of Christian Aid's partner organisations who are doing all they can to help.
It was set up because organisers knew there were many dalit villages in the area.
I met Jamuna Devi and Puliya Musamaar here.
For many it has become a question of survival
They told me that they were not allowed to use the hand pump to get water as it belonged to upper caste people.
The same upper caste people also asked the camp organizers to move displaced people away because as Dalits they would contaminate the entire place. Their request was refused.
"When will people understand we are also human beings?" Puliya asked. "We need food and water, our children also feel hungry."
I asked one of the aid agencies running another relief camp whether they would have a dalit cook.
Their response was negative. They felt that not everyone would eat food cooked by dalits.
Christian Aid and its partner organisations are including two dalits in the cooking teams in the relief camps they run - thus ensuring that they are not excluded.
Everyone needs food in this crisis situation, so why should people like Sakal Sadah, Jamuna Devi and Puliya Musamaar be so discriminated against?
And if Asdev Sadah can work in the fields and loyally guard the house of his higher-caste employee, then why people should refuse to eat food cooked by them?
We have to challenge the system. I know the problem is gigantic. But efforts need to be made. Each one of us has to make a step forward.
Another aid agency working in this area assured me that they tried to treat displaced people equally.
The critical point is that while equality may be an accepted philosophy it can only happen once people also agree in practice to be equals.
Equality means that all people should get food and their rights and dignity are respected.
But flooding and discrimination seem to have taken those rights away

DAILY ENCOUNTERS IX; FANTASY OVERCOMES POVERTY

DAILY ENCOUNTERS: THE GRASS-LIFTERS

IT IS GETTING SCARING, VERY SCARING

In the following an article from Yahoo News showing the ease of the assembly of an highly destructive bomb and if with this bomb soft targets as market places or hospital inlets are envisaged than the police canot give any protection.

"The bombs that went off at 17 busy areas of the city on Black Saturday bore a clear imprint of classic concoction of ammonium nitrate, ball bearings and some chemical powder packed in corrugated cartons for maximum impact in both death and destruction.

The bomb package had been left innocuously in cycle carriers and CNG city buses and the deadly cocktail was wrapped in three layers of plastic bags padded with cloth rags. A 6-volt Chinese-made battery was attached with the contraption to trigger the bomb through a timer device.

This macabre piece of local engineering was there for all to see at Galaxy cinema area at Naroda and civil hospital where ball-bearings and shrapnels were recovered aplenty. Incidentally, the civil hospital blast claimed maximum 16 lives and was meant to instill psychological fear in the people that if a well known hospital could be targeted then no one was safe, police and authorities said.

At Sarangpur market and Raipur Chakla the bombs had the same hallmark seen in other areas - all coming neatly packed in three plastic bags tied to cycle carriers with a rope. The bombs were planted near pan shops and vegetable vendors where common people usually congregate.

Police sources said fifth columnists locally were at work to help the mastermind in this evil venture as these bombs were assembled here and planted by different people."

ANOTHER BOMBS BLAST, 14 PEOPLE KILLED

A day after terrorists targeted Bangalore with eight low-intensity bomb explosions, 16 bombs went off within a span of an hour in Ahmedabad on Today evening, leaving at least 14 people killed and over 70 injured.
Several TV channels said they had received an email from a little known terror outfit called Indian Mujahiddin claiming responsibility for the terror attacks, even as intelligence sources pointed to the similarity between Saturday's blasts and those in Bangalore and Rajasthan capital Jaipur on May 13.
The targeted areas are considered 'communally sensitive'. They are mostly middle class neighbourhoods with many having a large population of migrant labour from other parts of Gujarat.
Police officials said at least 70 people were rushed to the Civil Hospital and the VS Hospital and added the number of the wounded could go up. Most of the blasts targeted the city bus service, ripping portions of buses apart. The explosives were planted on bicycles as well as tiffin or lunch boxes.
Residents in the affected areas stipulated:
"Then we saw several bicylces reduced to pieces and realised it was possibly a terror attack. Soon, we joined efforts to rescue the injured and rushing them to hospital," he said.
It is getting more and more dangereous and I am realy scared to travel and now that the terrorist are also using montain bikes , my favorite means of transport I might be even be a suspect

THE GHOST OF THE SUNDERBANKS

PAKURTALA in the Sunderbans: Gopal Haldar has been making his living in India's Sunderbans mangrove region as a ghost for more than 40 years.

Measuring a mere 122 cm and weighing a slight 24 kilograms, Haldar -- now near to retirement age -- says he has been malnourished all his life.

"My mother was very weak. So I am. I am unable to work in the field," Halder said in an interview in the Sunderbans village of Pakurtala, about 90 kilometres south of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the Ganges River delta
"I have hardly had the money to buy good food or visit a doctor. I have been suffering from malnutrition since my childhood. Because of his poor health and stick-like physique, he added, neighbours had said he was "born to play a ghost".
"Women and children are even scared of going out at night in case they meet me."
"I have no regrets. Sometimes I enjoy it," he said of his spooky profession.
His wife Malati, adding resignedly, "But he is addicted to smoking hemp and spends all his money on this habit." Lighting up a hemp cigarette in front of his wife, Haldar acknowledged his love of the herb.
"When I indulge myself in smoking hemp and playing chess, I wonder if I am a real ghost or a human being," he said philosophically.

BANGALORE BOMBS

Nine blasts rock Bangalore: two dead, dozens injured
Seven low-intensity bombs panicked the IT city were meant to spread fear more than mass destruction or death, say investigators and experts, reports. But I am still happy that the planned visit to Ashok Leyland in Husor was cancceled. So close I was never to these bomb attacks.



Pictures stolen from Hindustan Times

DAILY ENCOUNTERS VII ; MY FRIEND THE TWISTED HORN BULL